Boost Hiring Success with These 5 Simple Steps

A Forbes article titled “CEOs’ Most Important Business Challenges” highlighted one of the biggest issues facing leaders today: Finding Quality Employees.

We doubt that surprises you - hiring problems are everywhere, and most of us have our share of “hiring horror stories.”

But here’s the truth: most hiring problems are preventable.
By making just a few changes, you can dramatically increase your hiring success.

Here are five simple steps that will help you consistently hire the right people and avoid costly hiring mistakes.

1️⃣ Use a Scorecard to Stay Focused on What Success Looks Like

A scorecard helps define and measure what top performance looks like for a specific role.
It becomes your blueprint for hiring success.

Your scorecard should include:

• The purpose of the role,

• The key outcomes the person must deliver, and

• The non-negotiable skills and competencies required.

Everyone involved in the hiring process should be aligned on this definition of success. When you and your team know exactly what you’re looking for, you’re far more likely to find it.

2️⃣ Standardise Pre-Screening to Find Better Candidates

Not every great candidate has a great CV and not every great CV represents a great candidate.

If you rely only on CVs, you’ll filter in people who look good on paper and filter out some of your best potential hires.

Worse, unconscious bias can creep in early, distorting your shortlist.

To fix this:

• Introduce structured application or screening forms with questions that test for the real success factors in the role.

• Focus less on keywords and more on problem-solving and situational questions.

👉 Mint Kulca’s Applicant Tracking Software helps automate and structure this step - reducing bias and improving candidate quality right from the start.

3️⃣ Never Skip the Telephonic Screening Call

The telephonic screening is your first line of defence against poor hires.
It’s your chance to quickly rule out candidates who aren’t a fit before investing more time.

Tips for success:

• Use a structured question set for every call.

• Keep your scorecard nearby and match candidate responses to success criteria.

• Only invite candidates who meet your benchmarks to move forward.

Doing this well saves you countless hours later in the process.

4️⃣ Run Structured Interviews - Every Time

A structured interview process is one of the strongest predictors of hiring success.

Each interviewer should:

• Follow the same structured approach,

• Ask behavioural and fact-based questions about past performance, and

• Compare answers directly to the scorecard.

Why? Because past performance is the best predictor of future success.
When every interviewer measures the same things, your hiring decisions become objective, fair, and accurate.

5️⃣ Always Check References - and Do It Properly

References are your final validation. They confirm (or disprove) what the candidate told you.

To get real insight:

• Use a structured reference template and call the referee at their work number, not a personal one.

• Confirm their position and relationship with the candidate.

• Pay attention not just to what they say, but how they say it.

Tone, hesitation, or lack of enthusiasm can reveal far more than the words alone.

💡 Hot Tip

Access our library of Hiring Strategy webinars and e-books for more ways to strengthen your hiring process.

You Can’t Build a Great Company Without Great Hires

You can’t build a high-performing, motivated culture without consistently hiring top performers.
Top performers raise the bar, they inspire others, boost performance, and drive your business forward.

If you want to increase your hiring success and grow your business:
👉 Try Mint Kulca’s future-forward Applicant Tracking Software.
Our tools help you hire top performers 90% of the time through structured, data-driven processes.